146 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
But in order more fully to show the variable nature of 
the "Mudian climate, we think it as well to insert also the 
thermometrical and miscellaneous observations for each 
month of the year 1854, taken by our friend Mr. Hurdis. 
The Bermudas are subject, but fortunately at rare inter- 
vals, to shocks of earthquake, which hitherto have happily 
done no harm beyond frightening the inhabitants, and thus 
interrupting the usual routine of their peaceable existence. 
An account of the last visitation of this nature, which took 
place on the 2nd of March of the present year, will be 
found in the following pages. 
Hurricanes occur at intervals during the latter part of 
summer, and heavy gales very often during the winter 
months, doing considerable injury to trees, crops, and 
habitations, the former being uprooted, or having their 
branches stript of foliage, and torn asunder by the fury of 
the storm. The great hurricane which occurred on the 11th 
of September, 1839, did considerable damage to property 
of all descriptions. 
